What Are We Waiting For?
by HufflePuffPatronus
Summary: The would be adventures of a beautiful witch named Bonnie and baseball bat wielding, Orginal Vampire named Kol. With featured Klaroline, Kalijah, Frucien and Stebekah/Mabekah/Robenzo (depending on my mood)
1. Merry Christmas Darling

Kol and Bonnie both work at the mall as Elves for Santa's Grotto, Kol utilizes every second to annoy the hell out of her.

A/N: Yes I know this is Christmas fic and we're nearly at the end of May shhh just go with me on this…

There was definitely someone up there working against her Bonnie Bennett decided. Seriously, what were the odds of getting a job in the middle of the mall - working as an elf no less - and end up working with him?

Stefan had hooked her with the gig; Turned out he made a pretty convincing Santa Claus under a fat suit and a fake beard. He'd spoken to his boss and given her a recommendation and before she knew it, she was playing nice to impatient parents and their snotty nosed bundles of joys, taking pictures with them and constantly being asked if her elf ears were real and why she was so tall; If she was supposed to be an elf - She was only 5"1 but apparently that was practically giant in elf sizes.

One kid had even had the audacity to point out that he didn't think that there were any black elves in the North Pole.

So the job wasn't exactly a picnic as it was. But the pay was good and it could be kind of fun when the children weren't complete gremlins. She had been doing just fine.

Then _he_ came along.

It was a Wednesday. She strolled into the center of Mystic Mall in her jogging pants Because, yeah, she'd rather die wearing those than coming to work in her uniform. JCole was on full blast in her ears, while she munched on a soft pretzel admiring the decorations that had been put up for the festive season. Enjoying what started off as a pretty good morning.

That's when Stefan had shuffled over to her with a worried expression on his handsome face. He was decked out in his full Santa suit minus the beard.

"Morning Santa," She beamed good-naturedly."You ready to make some dreams come true?"

"Uh. Yeah, Bonnie, there's just, uh... something you gotta know before we start work today."

She blinked worriedly.

"Is something wrong?"

Stefan shuffled awkwardly from left to right. He looked like he wanted to say something but didn't know how to put it.

"Spit it out, Stefan! Ugh. Please don't tell me Dave decided to keep us open later today?"

"Oh, um, no. It's nothing like that,"

She gave him an expectant look to what he sighed and continued.

"Well, what's happening is, you're going to be working with a new elf in the workshop from now on."

"What? Why? What happened to Greg?"

"He's sick."

"Sick?"

"Well, it would be more accurate to say he slipped off his skateboard and fractured his leg in five places."

"Oh my Gosh. Is he gonna be okay?!"

"According to Dave, he's gonna be fine. It's his new replacement that's the problem."

"What about him?"

"He's..."

"He what? He doesn't spend all his time talking about Limp Bizkit and imitating anything from the 80's? Because if so, then he's an upgrade from Greg."

"You wouldn't say that, if you knew who it is."

"Why? Who is it, Stefan?"

"There she is," A horribly familiar voice resounded behind her. In that moment, she was incensed enough to nearly drop her soft pretzel.

"NO," She said incredulously looking at Stefan.

Stefan only shut his eyes and nodded solemnly.

She turned her head to see Kol freaking Mikaelson standing behind her and grinning his ass off.

"Aren't you happy to see me, love?"

"No, this is ridiculous. You have to talk to Dave or someone! Either way, I am NOT working with him! Over my dead and buried, body. No, absolutely not."

"Er, hello I'm standing right here. I can actually hear you. Thank you very much."

Bonnie turned around fixing Kol with a hard glare. One that would disintegrate him if looks could kill.

"What. Are you even _doing_ here," She gritted her teeth. "Why the hell are you working in the mall!? No, you know what? Don't."

She held her hand up before Kol could utter his reply.

"I don't want to hear it. I know why you got this job. The same reason you do everything. To make my entire existence a living, breathing hell!" She exclaimed flinging her arms up in the air to emphasize her point and flouncing past Stefan to go into the changing rooms.

"Way to play it cool," Stefan deadpanned.

"It's my natural charm Stefan. I can't just turn it on and off."

"Yeah, well, find a way to tone it down. Because if you don't, Bonnie's gonna end up ripping your head off in front of all the poor little kids. And then all three of us will get fired."

Kol smirked and gave him a mock-salute.

"Aye aye, captain."

But there was an obvious wicked gleam in his eyes.

" _It's gonna be a long couple of weeks,"_ Stefan thought.

"You're doing that wrong," Bonnie grumbled. She glared at Kol from the corner of her eye as he proceeded to incorrectly wrap yet another one of the children's presents.

"Ah, so she speaks. I see you've broken your vow of silence then darling,"

"I'm only talking to you because I can't sit here and watch you screw that up for the seventeenth thousand time in a row."

"I personally think you just wanted an excuse to chat," he said waggling his thick eyebrows at her.

After scowling at him for a second she reached out and snatched the gift from him.

"Give me that," she growled. She reached for the scissors to try and cut the ribbon and undo some of the damage Kol had done.

After a second or two, she felt Kol's eyes burning against the side of her neck.

"What?" She seethed glancing up at him.

"You know, there aren't many people who can pull off elf ears and striped stockings, Bonnie Bennett. I've never considered the whole elf thing to be a fantasy of mine, but you certainly make it work."

"You are disgusting, you know that?"

"I'm just honest, love."

"Well, don't be. Just, let's not speak for the remainder of this shift. No talking unless something's on fire or someone's dying."

Kol held his hands up. "As you wish."

There was a very brief pause.

"I just have one question."

"I thought you just told me to shut up?"

"Just answer me this, and we can totally go back to ignoring each other."

"Why the hell, do you need a job at the Mystic Mall? Aren't your family rolling in it?"

There was a silence and for a moment, Bonnie tensed thinking she may have hit a nerve. Was the Mikaelson family having financial difficulties?

In her defense, she hadn't seen any of his other siblings with jobs.

She imagined Elijah working at one of those fancy haberdasheries; or Rebekah as one of the snooty sales assistants in Bloomingdale's. Or even funnier: Klaus serving customers at Mcdonald's.

The mental image was priceless.

"Wouldn't you like to know," he said smiling coquettishly at her and moving to perch on a nearby stool.

"I would actually," Bonnie said turning to look at him, genuinely intrigued.

"Well if you must know Bon-Bon, I was teaching my youngest brother Henrik how to use a baseball bat in our back garden. Unfortunately, the poor lad doesn't quite have my skill and finesse when it comes to the sport and he managed to put a hole through one of our stained glass windows. When our irate father came downstairs to see who did it, I just let him believe it was me. Long story short, he's making me work to pay off the debt."

"Wait, so you're saying you took your brother's rap? Why?"

Well, she knew _why_ it just seemed like such an out of character thing to do.

"He's only seven. So obviously, he's not old enough to get a job. Father would only take it out on his pocket money if I let him take the blame for it. Besides, it was my idea in the first place."

"Wow. That's so... nice of you, Kol,"

"Always the tone of surprise."

"Well I just didn't expect it from you that's all."

Kol stood up and approached her. When he was close he looked down at her and spoke in a low voice.

"Am I so bad, Bonnie Bennett?"

For a second, Bonnie's eyes met his. She bit her lip and felt a small sensation run up her spine. She tapped her chin for a moment pretending to think. Then she tiptoed so that her face was dangerously close to his and whispered.

"Yes."

Then she took off in the other direction with a mischievous smile on her face. She could hear Kol growl in protest.

Maybe working together wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Say Cheese," Bonnie said enthusiastically holding a polaroid camera to her face.

"CHEESE," Chorused the group of not one but 3 children, all huddled together on Kol's lap.

One of the boys had a firm grip on Kol's hat taking a large chunk of his hair in his fist.

Kol was grimacing trying to keep his face straight until the picture was taken.

Eventually, the children hopped off of his lap one by one and ran to receive their gifts from Bonnie.

"There you go guys, Merry Christmas," Bonnie sing-sang waving cheerfully as the last of the kids left the workshop.

Kol let out a sigh of relief, then pulled his hat off throwing it down on the ground angrily.

"Honestly, I could've strangled that little whelp."

"Hey now, Mr. Grinch, where did all your Christmas spirit go?"

"I'll show you Christmas spirit," he snarled.

She giggled following him into the back room.

"So any plans for the weekend?"

"Ah. You know, the usual, homework; then studying hard for the rest of the time."

Bonnie paused to give Kol her trademark 'enough of your bullshit' look.

"Homework. Really?"

"Alright, I confess you've got me. I'll probably attempt to beat my high score at Halo this weekend. In between marathons of South Park."

That was one of the things she hated most about Kol. He was one of the smartest people in their year group. She knew for a fact he didn't study. And if she was assuming before, he'd just confirmed she had been right with that theory.

She worked her ass off to stay at the top of her class and people like Kol were infuriating.

"And yourself? Sweet Bonnie, what are your plans?"

"Oh, you know, I'm gonna go home hang up my elf hat and start sifting through all those letters to Santa," she teased.

Kol smiled salaciously.

"You know, for someone so against the elf fantasy, you're certainly not doing anything to stop me from indulging in such thoughts."

"That was a joke, a perfectly PG13 joke. But every conversation with you has to turn R-rated, doesn't it?"

"Oh, I assure you, darling, if you gave me half the chance with you, all our conversations would be considerably _X-rated_ ," He quipped suggestively.

"You truly are something," she muttered.

He only grinned at her from across the room.

She walked toward where he was standing, which was right near the door to go out to the changing room. He accidentally - totally deliberately - stepped in her way. They bumped chest to chest facing each other. He had a good few feet on her being 6"0. She couldn't deny height difference was always something that turned her on.

A chill ran through her once again as their eyes eventually met.

"Careful love," he murmured. "Try watching where you're going next time."

She scoffed indignantly as he skirted past her like nothing happened. She straightened herself, suddenly feeling a little light headed and dizzy.

She had been right from the start. Working with Kol Mikaelson was absolute hell. But for a whole other reason, she hadn't expected.

It was all the chemistry between them. She could be stubborn when she wanted to be. But it was only for so long she could go on denying how she felt.

And what she wanted.

It was impossible to get any work done when Kol was always giving her these looks and dubbing her with these pet names. And _accidently_ bumping and brushing into her all the time; deliberately, taking breaks when she did and insisting on walking her to her car in the evenings.

Luckily, she managed to get him to stop with the innuendos: She warned him if he mentioned his 'Little Helper' one more time she'd personally see to it that it was removed.

But there was always a hint of a suggestion every time he spoke. And there was always just this raw energy in the atmosphere when they were in each other's proximity.

Even Stefan seemed to notice it. He was trying his best to avoid playing the third wheel around them feeling uncomfortable from all the tension.

As for Bonnie, she was doing a perfectly good job at controlling herself. Or so she thought. Well, up until her resolve finally snapped.

It was the last week before Christmas. Soon the Santa's Grotto exhibit would close for another year and she and Kol would no longer be colleagues.

She scolded herself for feeling so disappointed about that.

She shouldn't really.

She'd been praying for this experience to be over for weeks. And now that it was, she wasn't in the least bit as happy as she thought she'd be.

They were packing up the toys and props on the last day. Dave was letting them go early that day as well as giving them a bonus because the Grotto did so well that year.

As they packed up, Kol was making some snarky jokes after another. Bonnie was trying her damnedest not to stare at Kol's ass when he bent down to pick up the oversized candy canes off the floor.

"..So he clearly wasn't as good at it as he thought... Are you listening love?"

"Hmm?" Bonnie replied with a breathy voice.

"Are you alright?" He asked, his face suddenly stricken with concern.

"Mmm. Yeah I'm fine. Just tired that's all." She emphasised her point with the fakest yawn known to man.

He nodded.

"You and me both, darling."

In that moment, just by chance, he happened to look up and Bonnie watched as his face began to turn pale.

"Oh, blimey..."

"What?"

"Oh, bloody hell. I'm screwed."

"What, Kol?"

"That's my ex over there, Davina Claire, walking with her friends. If she sees me here I'm dead."

"I'm sure it's not that bad-"

"She'll try to take a picture of me. She'll humiliate me. Trust me, she's been looking for a way to get back at me ever since we broke up."

"Quick, hide me," he said urgently.

"Uh, Kol, I hate to break this to you but it's uh... too late."

Across the mall the small brunette had stopped, head tilted in confusion trying to figure out if she was seeing what she thought she was seeing.

"Kol!?"

Kol froze on the spot not daring to turn around and face her. Although he could hear the unmistakable sounds of footsteps coming toward them.

Seeing the look of panic Kol shot her, Bonnie acted on instinct and did what she had been dying to do for weeks on end now.

And damn did it feel good.

As their lips met, Kol was momentarily confused so it took him a second to respond. Eventually, he secured his arm around her petite frame and fully reciprocated. She moaned feeling his tongue brushing against hers and relished the way he gently sucked on her lower lip.

For those few seconds, what felt like hours, her mind was in a haze. She would've found it difficult to keep her balance had Kol not been holding her.

At some point during the kiss, she heard a haughty scoffing noise and the sound of someone leaving whom she assumed to be Davina.

They finally parted and she stumbled back slightly. Her pupils were blown and her skin felt as if it was burning up with some kind of fever.

"I uh..." She stuttered "I think it worked."

Then she practically ran past him into the changing rooms praying she hadn't just made a complete fool out of herself. If she had, thank God, it was the weekend and she could avoid Kol for the rest of Christmas break.

She was just plotting how she was going to convince her dad to let her transfer schools halfway through the year, when she felt a pair of hands on her waist.

She squeaked in shock at first turning frightenedly around to see that it was Kol standing behind her.

"Kol you scared me. What are you doing in here? This is the girls, mmmph-"

Kol quickly closed the gap between them devouring her lips. He pushed her into a nearby wall, pressing his body against hers.

She panted as he started lavishing hot open mouthed kisses onto the caramel colored skin of her neck.

"Kol- we can't- someone will catch us-"

"I've been waiting too long for this Bonnie Bennett," he said pulling off her cardigan.

As his lips found a particularly sensitive spot on her neck she couldn't bring herself to argue any further.

Stefan came out of the men's change rooms glad to be out of that ridiculous suit and even itchier beard. It had been worth it though, now he could manage to take Elena out more often.

He was just about to call her when he heard noises coming from the opposite changing rooms.

Gasping and panting noises.

Weird.

"Bonnie? You okay?"

When there was no answer he knocked the second time.

"Hey, Bonnie, you okay in there?"

There was a pause. Then a voice that was definitely not Bonnie's, said:

"She's fine, mate. Thanks for asking."

Stefan cringed realizing what was going on.

" _Well,_ " he thought. " _These two are definitely going to be on Santa's naughty list this year_."


	2. Puppy Love Part 1

Summary: Kol and Bonnie are roommates, Bonnie is depressed because she's broken up with her boyfriend; so Kol decides to surprise her with a new friend.

Apparently there were 5 stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

Bonnie Bennett was certain there was a sixth stage, right between depression and acceptance. Numbness. Feeling like time had stopped and everything wrong in life was staring her in the face and there was nowhere else to go. Maybe people never got to that stage of acceptance. Maybe you just had to feel this way for a while to eventually to find a way to move on.

Anyhow, that's how Bonnie felt right now. Numb. She sat on the couch, with her favourite beige snuggie draped around her shoulders, flicking absent mindedly through the channels.

Expression blank. Mind blank.

It had been exactly, 3 weeks, four days and seven hours since Jeremy had left New York.

He was an art major, and she was studying photography. They were at separate universities but luckily they were close by. Jeremy lived on campus and she had gotten an apartment near to school but unfortunately for her, the rent was sky high. So Jeremy had come up with a creative solution.

His friend Kol, who was doing computer science at the same college, was looking for an apartment and if they moved in together they could share the rent. It was a win win for everyone.

Except for the fact that Kol was a royal pain in the ass. A dirty dish leaving socks all over the floor singing in the shower pain in the ass; that she'd had to put up with for four years. Luckily for him, she had the patience of a saint evidently, or this time, four years ago she'd be on the six an o'clock news and he'd be lying in a body bag.

When they both graduated the plan was that she and Jeremy would get jobs in the city and eventually have a place of their own minus Kol.

Fate, however, had other plans and apparently so did Jeremy. Who decided, that he wanted to go travelling while he was still young and that he was worried about getting tied down and making too many commitments before he was ready.

When she had demanded what the hell that meant, he'd gotten all defensive and explained that this is was why he was worried about telling her because now she was upset (like seriously what else had he expected) and he'd even had the audacity to ask her last minute if she wanted to tag along with him.

It was like a slap in the face. A guy tells his girlfriend he's leaving the country indefinitely and then asks her to go with him at the last minute and treats her like an afterthought. Like she didn't have a life and plans of her own.

She'd told him to stick his world tour up his ass, he'd left and she hadn't seen him since. According to Kol, he'd landed safely somewhere in the middle of Mexico. Whatever.

She hoped she didn't get to the stage of acceptance, in fact, she'd like to make a U turn and head straight back to anger, it was certainly a lot better than feeling like this.

She picked up her phone to check it again:

No missed calls.

Jeremy was a prick. Don't get him wrong, they were mates. But that didn't mean he wasn't an absolute prat sometimes.

When they'd first met they'd bonded over a love of Halo, computer software and baseball. Kol had been surprised when Jeremy had suggested he and Bonnie move in together; after all, Kol was sure Jeremy knew his track record with women. And Bonnie, well she wasn't exactly hard to look at. In fact, she was gorgeous (she seemed a little out of Jeremy's league if you asked him) but Jeremy completely trusted them in the same living space together and Kol soon understood why.

Bonnie and his best friend were perhaps the most sickening, lovey dovey couple he'd ever encountered and that included his oldest brother and his beloved wife, Sage. No wonder Jeremy wasn't the least bit worried about Kol making a move on Bonnie, the two of them were practically attached at the hip. Besides, Bonnie would have shut him down faster than he could say 'darling' if he had tried anything. She went crazy on him if he left so much as a fork unwashed in the sink.

But it wasn't awful living with her, quite the opposite. Now he understood why girls loved living together: they were clean; they cooked and every cushion, towel and curtain in the apartment smelt like a fruit or some variation of flower. The only downside was when Jeremy and Bonnie wanted some alone time. That's when he made sure to quickly make himself scarce.

If he was honest he didn't think Jeremy deserved Bonnie. She was probably one of the smartest people he'd ever met, she was driven and loyal and Jeremy minus his art skills was mediocre at best.

But he was his best friend and he'd gotten him a shared rent place to live so he kept his mouth shut.

Then halfway through the spring semester, Kol noticed Jeremy googling flight prices. Thinking he was looking at holiday destinations he joked about them going for one last boy's trip for spring break.

Then he informed him of what his actual plans were.

"Have you told Bonnie?" He'd asked wondering how the hell she had taken the news. "Not yet," Jeremy had murmured distractedly, not even looking up from his laptop screen. "Well, are you planning to?"

"Uh, eventually yeah, I just don't wanna ruin things in our last year together, you know,"

Now Kol wasn't an expert at relationships, but waiting until the last minute to tell her sounded like the most stupid plan ever. But he wasn't about to get involved so he just said.

"Rather you than me, mate."

At the time, he hadn't realised what an awkward position Jeremy was about to put him in. Here he was, Jeremy's best friend, living in an apartment with his ex girlfriend who hated Jeremy's guts right now. He felt almost guilty on Jeremy's behalf just for being associated with him.

He really hadn't known what to do the first few days after Jeremy left. At first, he gave Bonnie space but when he heard her crying through her bedroom door, he couldn't exactly walk past and pretend he couldn't hear it.

He wanted to go in and comfort her, but he had a feeling she wouldn't quite appreciate that so he did the next best thing he could think of.

Quite coincidently one of Bonnie's best friends was dating his older brother (it was a small world evidently) so he called up Nik and told him to put Caroline on the phone. Once he'd explained what was going on, Caroline immediately promised to be there within the next half an hour and hung up before he could say another word.

It only took Caroline 20 minutes if that; she'd rung the doorbell and barged past him demanding to know where Bonnie was.

"Hello to you too, love."

"Where is she, Kol."

"In her room, she hasn't been out for days."

She put her bag down on the couch and strode over to Bonnie's door and knocked quietly. "Go away Kol!"

"Charming..." He murmured, crossing his arms indignantly. "Bonnie sweetie it's me, Caroline. Open up,"

There was a shuffling noise and slowly the door cracked open a couple of inches.

"What are you doing here, Care?"

She asked wiping some stray tears off of her cheek.

"Kol called me,"

"He shouldn't have bothered you, I'm fine."

"Don't be silly Bonnie. And you should've called me sooner! But I'm here now, let's talk about it,"

As Caroline curled her arm around Bonnie's and led her into the bedroom, Kol couldn't be sure but he thought he saw Bonnie shoot him a grateful half smile before the door shut.

After that, all he could hear was soft feminine voices through the door, he didn't catch much but the was a lot of, "it's gonna be okay" and "what a jerk!" and "you're so much better than that."

He was in the kitchen making a sandwich when Caroline finally emerged, she entered the kitchen and headed straight for the fridge.

"We need ice cream and lots of it."

"Bottom shelf," he mumbled with his mouth full. "How is she?"

"Better, or at least she will be." She gave him a calculating glance. "Have you heard from him?"

"Who, Jeremy? Not since he landed."

"Mmm." Was all she said in response, sounding slightly accusatory as if she believed he had been conspiring with Jeremy to break Bonnie's heart.

Sending Caroline had definitely been the right thing to do; the next morning Bonnie actually got out of bed, had a shower and ate some breakfast.

As for him, he was doing his best to be a considerate roommate what with Bonnie in her current state. He cleaned up after himself, he only played X Box in his room so Bonnie wouldn't accuse him of hogging the TV and he kept the noise level to an absolute minimum at all times. So between him walking on eggshells and Bonnie basically drifting around the apartment like a zombie, the place was eerily quiet most of the time, a constant reminder of the big elephant in the room.

Once Caroline had come over and given her a bit of perspective, Bonnie became determine to not to become the cliché of the weeping, heartbroken, ex girlfriend. She forced herself out of bed every day; washed and dressed; put on makeup and spent the mornings filling out job applications. That was the whole point of rejecting Jeremy's offer to travel the world right? To kick-start her career and make a life for herself right here in the United States of America.

But that's about as far as she could stretch herself in terms of motivation; she'd basically transitioned from her bed to the couch and now spent most of her afternoons alternating between Netflix and re runs of The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

She appreciated the effort on Kol's part to give her space and make life a little easier on her. She'd nearly died of shock the first day she came out of her room and she saw the sink utterly void of dishes and the majority of the carpet visible and not covered by dirty clothes.

She almost wished she'd gone through a major break up sooner if seeing her depressed made Kol this helpful.

As she sat on the couch she tried to remember where Kol had said he was going earlier, she'd been only half listening at the time she couldn't even remember if he'd come back yet. Just then, Kol exited his room with his iPod plugged into his ears, she glanced up at him and then turned her attention back to the TV.

Kol paused and removed one earbud.

"I'm going out to get lunch, do you need anything?" "I'm good, thanks."

Usually, he took no as an adequate answer but this time he lingered and she could feel him staring at her.

"You can't stay on that couch forever, you know," Kol pointed out.

"Hmm, well I pay half the rent and I paid for half of this couch, so maybe you should pick a side

and then I'll pick a side, then you can do whatever the hell you want on your side and leave me to do the same

"Alright fine, I was just saying,"

"Well don't," she growled.

"Why don't you come outside? Remember that? Fresh air, get some exercise, release some endorphins,"

She turned to face him, her eyebrows shooting up indignantly. "Oh, so now I'm fat!?"

"At what point did you those words come out of my mouth," "Well, that's what it sounded like to me," she said, getting up. "Bloody hell, you women are impossible," he huffed.

Wrong move.

"OH WE'RE THE IMPOSSIBLE ONES!? Oh, because I forgot that's how it is right? We're the crazy ones; somehow everything's always our fault even when it's yours. Well, at least I'm not a selfish! Lying! Asshole!"

She was so enraged she didn't even notice Kol loudly protesting and yelling 'ow' as she proceeded to batter him with a cushion.

She caught herself quickly and dropped it.

"I'm sorry, none of this is your fault, I'm taking my anger out on you and I shouldn't," After a minute, Kol nodded.

"It's alright. I suppose, I'd want to beat someone half to death with a cushion as well if I were you,"

Bonnie let out a stifled laugh and sighed resting her head in her hands.

"I'm really sorry, I know you've been making an effort not to be a pain in the ass recently."

"Don't go getting too used to it," he teased. "When you start to cheer up, it's back to the way things were,"

"Oh no, not so fast Mister, now you've actually proven that you're capable of cleaning up after yourself there's no turning back now."

Kol just grinned mischievously, as she rolled her eyes and gave a small smile in return. Kol's eyes softened slightly and he reached out to gently touch her arm.

"You deserved more, love, I don't blame you for being angry but it'll get better soon, trust me."

Bonnie suddenly became aware of his hand on her arm, the feeling of his touch warming her whole body as his thumb traced circles on her skin.

"Thanks," She murmured, hoping her blushing wasn't as obvious as it felt. He gave her a final smile and walked out of the apartment.

Bonnie watched him leave; releasing a breath she didn't know she was holding.

Things had gotten gradually better since the day they sorted things out. Bonnie got off the couch and started getting back into her routine; she finally got some fresh air; started doing yoga again in the mornings and doing Bonnie things, like changing the type of fake flowers that sat in the pot in the bathroom.

Now that things were less tense between them, they now spent a lot more time together instead of just skirting around one another. Doing things like watching TV while munching on cereal or grocery shopping together (although Kol suspected Bonnie had just got tired of him coming back from the store, with just about everything but what she asked for on the list). Honestly, it felt like things were finally getting relatively back to normal.

One evening Kol heard from one of his friends; he had a band who were just signed, so he was having a party to celebrate. Despite the fact that they had no mutual friends in common (Jeremy and Caroline excluded) nor did they run in the same social circles, Kol's first instinct had been to invite Bonnie to go along with him, in an utterly platonic fashion of course.

She'd politely declined, it wasn't really her scene after all and informed him that was gonna stay in with some microwave popcorn and a movie. When he'd hesitated, she promised she'd be fine and told him he should go and have a good time.

He did go in the end, but the party wasn't half as fun as it should've been, as his mind kept wandering back to the smart and wonderful girl he'd left on the couch. Eventually, he left a lot earlier than he would have under usual circumstances. He was feeling anything but normal of late and the longer he stayed at this boozy party, the higher the likelihood of returning home to Bonnie completely inebriated.

When he returned to the apartment, he could hear the unmistakable)sound of someone crying. At first, he assumed it was the TV but as he drew further into the room he was greeted by the sight of Bonnie huddled up in a ball on the couch, weeping, with wads of tissues surrounding her.

His mind quickly jumped to what seemed to be the likely cause of her distress. What had Jeremy done now?

He quickly stooped down and sat beside her.

"What is it, love? Was it him, what did he say to you?"

Bonnie looked up at him wide-eyed and confused for a minute.

"Who? Jeremy? Wh no, I haven't heard from him in ages, I would've said."

"Well pardon my love, but you can see why I assumed the worse," he said gesturing to their surroundings.

"I was fine," she sniffed. "And then that came on and... I just couldn't stop crying."

Kol furrowed his brows and turned in the direction of the television where she was pointing.

All he could see was that Ryan Goose guy, the various women he'd met over time were always raving about. The blonde woman looked vaguely familiar too. He could've sworn she was the same one in that high school movie his sister had been obsessed with her in teens.

"I'm afraid you've lost me, darling."

She stared at him like he'd grown a second head. "It's the Notebook, Kol!"

When his face remained infuriatingly blank, Bonnie gestured irritably. "You know, only one of the greatest love stories of all time,"

"Better than the three hour boat movie?" Kol jibed. "I've never seen something take so long to sink."

"Don't even go there with Titanic," Bonnie said glaring warningly making Kol chuckle. "And it was a ship by the way, not a boat."

"It's my own fault, guess I didn't realise it but I'm still kind of emotionally fragile after everything that's happened, it was an extremely poor choice of movie," she said wiping her face and trying to straighten up a bit.

"Well, why don't you make a start on cleaning up all this, put on something a little less melancholic and I'll go brew us some tea in the meantime,"

Bonnie grinned and arched her eyebrow at him.

"Is that a British thing? Make yourself a cup of tea and everything will start to feel better?" Kol smiled at her indulgently.

"Well it was certainly my mother's favourite choice of medication."

"Did I ever tell you? One day, my brothers and I were outside, playing a football. Finn denies this with every fibre of his being but I'm bloody certain the bastard tripped me up, so I ended up flying forward and cracking my head open on the pavement. All three of them rushed me inside; Elijah assumed I needed to go to a hospital to get stitches; my mother thought otherwise. She took one look at me and told the housekeeper to put on the kettle and said that I should see how I was feeling after a nice hot cup of tea,"

"That cannot be true," Bonnie stated, incredulously. Kol smirked at her over his shoulder.

"Clearly you don't know my mother, she would've risked sewing in the stitches herself if it had meant saving her the bother of driving me to the Emergency Room "

Seeing Bonnie's shock he added.

"Turns out it wasn't all that serious, it just looks like an awful lot of blood when you're only six,"

"Wow, it must've been pretty eventful growing up with you and your siblings, huh?"

"'Eventful is one way of putting it," he said, dryly.

"Here, I made you a hot chocolate. I figured it would be slightly more preferable to your refined, American taste buds," he teased.

Bonnie rolled her eyes but got up from the couch to accept the drink from him. "Thanks, I appreciate it."

"Made just the way you like it, marshmallows and all."

She beamed radiantly at him and momentarily his breath caught in his throat. As she put the cup to her lips to take a sip, he couldn't help chuckling at something that caught his eye.

"What?" Bonnie said, wrinkling her nose in confusion.

"You have a little... eh... in your mouth," he said, gesturing to her face.

Bonnie gasped and quickly set her drink down and started flailing around madly looking for a napkin. Eventually, she opted to wipe it with her finger accidentally spreading the creamy froth onto the top of her nose.

"There, is it gone? Kol!? Stop laughing and help me," she said, licking her full lips anxiously.

"Here," he said, stepping forward and closing what little space lied between them in their tiny kitchenette.

He took his index finger and gently swiped it against her nose.

"There you are," he murmured, without taking his eyes off of her, his voice low and throaty.

There was a short pause and then Bonnie let out a shaky breath and hurriedly excused herself claiming to be tired out and needing sleep.

She rushed out so quickly she left her hot chocolate on the counter.


	3. Puppy Love Part 2

**A/N:** This is a Part 2/Continuation of this drabble which you can find here

Credit goes to misssophiachase for beta;ing this half too.

Background Klaroline and Kolaus

The next morning, Bonnie Bennett woke up to 3 new emails, all saying the same thing.

"We regret to inform you that your application here at (fill in the blank) has been declined. However, we will alert you of any other available positions if they arise..."

She pushed her laptop of off her lap and flipped over, lying on the bed flat on her stomach; pulling the pulling the pillow toward her. She buried her face in it and let out a half scream/half growl that she hoped Kol couldn't hear from the opposite room.

She'd applied for five different photographer positions at various magazines and newspapers. The other two hadn't responded yet but she wasn't extremely optimistic about their possible responses. She resented the power companies had in whether or not she kept a roof over her head.

Despite Kol's less than favourable qualities as a roommate, when it came down to paying rent his half was always on the counter; in a sealed envelope, at the end of the month without fail.

Bonnie had never known Kol to have a job in all the time they had lived together. So she had to assume his ability to live carefree, in the middle of one of the most expensive cities in the world was a result of the Mikaelson's old money. The kind of money that gave you the means to raise seven children comfortably, three of whom weren't even supporting themselves.

Bonnie wouldn't exactly call herself poor. That would be wildly inaccurate. Luckily she had the kind of father that had been steadily putting money away for her since the day she was born. That little nest egg was the only thing keeping her afloat at the moment but she knew she couldn't live off it forever, despite her being careful to only take money out of her account for rent and essentials.

She didn't think Kol would have any problem covering her if one day she couldn't afford the rent anymore, but nevertheless she sure as hell wasn't about to live off of someone else's charity. No, she'd move right back to Mystic Falls and work at the Grill before she'd let that happen.

She knew she should really have a more positive outlook but, lately, she was starting to feel like a real failure. A girl with no job and no boyfriend, who couldn't even watch a stupid chick flick without bursting into tears.

The friends she did have, she didn't see much of. Caroline was currently doing an internship at a PR firm and thoroughly enjoying herself by the sounds of it. The only problem was the job was long hours so they hardly ever got the chance to catch up in person. Still, Caroline found

the time to call her at least every other day, for what she described as 'girl talk' but Bonnie knew that she was mostly calling to check up on her and make sure she wasn't sliding back into her previous state of depression.

As for Elena, four years ago she was accepted into a university somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania. She'd made tearful promises on graduation day to stay friends and write and skype and even send smoke signals if that's what it took to keep in contact.

Bonnie and Caroline heard from her once every 4 -6 months, if they were lucky. Slightly more if it was a holiday.

The salt queen in her was tempted to say that going AWOL and abandoning the people you care about was clearly a genetic trait amongst those with names ending in Gilbert.

That morning she promised herself that despite everything, (delete) she'd still make an effort to get out of bed, make herself a grilled cheese sandwich and maybe go for a walk.

She did none of those things.

The next three days followed a similar pattern.

Kol swore, if he ever saw that stupid Ryan Gosling bloke, he'd punch him right in his pretty face. Just as it looked like Bonnie might be making some progress and starting to feel better she fell right back into her funk and hadn't left her room for the last four days.

Admittedly, at first he considered the possibility that she was avoiding him after their little 'moment' the other day. When Bonnie did briefly leave her room to get some water she only mumbled something about jobs and feeling slightly frustrated.

She asked him not to worry about her. As if that was something in his control. Honestly, he wished he could.

Kol had never seen himself as someone in need of advice when it came to women. Usually, his natural charm did the trick nicely. You'd think having grown up with two sisters he would've learned something substantial about women by now.

But Freya was a good few years older than him and for most of their childhood he'd made it his business to ignore just about everything Rebekah said to him.

Freya had just had a baby with her husband Lucien, so he doubted she had the time to counsel him on his love life.

He could always call Rebekah for advice.

He could also attempt to gouge his eyes out with a dessert spoon.

He briefly considered consulting Siri for advice but after a bit of thought he decided to contact another source for advice.

He sighed and dialled Klaus' number.

"What is it Kol?" came a gruff voice.

"Now is that anyway to greet your favourite younger brother? What's the matter Nik, did I interrupt playtime with Caroline?"

"Whatever it is your calling to ask me for your chances of getting it grow slimmer by the second," Klaus growled menacingly.

"Well who say I want anything," Kol argued.

"When was the last time you contacted me for anything outside of asking me for money?"

"It's not like that this time,"

"No?" Klaus scoffed "Then enlighten me brother I'm intrigued, are you in prison, did you manage to set something on fire? Someone perhaps?"

"For God's sake Nik, take your head out of your arse for a second and listen," Kol grumbled.

"Alright, alright, by all means have it it brother,"

Kol sighed deeply and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I need some advice,"

There was a pause and then a noise down the phone, which sounded like Klaus was sitting up in his chair.

"Well, you know full well it's Elijah who's more adept than I when it comes to offering brotherly advice Kol,"

"Yes but Elijah's about as single as I am at the moment so I doubt he'd be much use," Kol said running his fingers through his brown locks.

Klaus let out a throaty chuckle.

"Ah so it's about a girl,"

"Bonnie," Kol admitted.

"Oh dear, won't Caroline be pleased to know that you've set your sights on her recently heartbroken best friend," Klaus said in faux-reprimanding tone.

"I swear Nik, if you breathe a word of this to her-"

"Relax," Klaus reassured him. "This stays just between us girls," he joked.

"So will you help me or not?" Kol demanded.

"How is it that you expect me to be of assistance?" Klaus queried skeptically.

"I have no idea what to say to her. Since my idiot best friend took off and left her she's been nothing but depressed and emotional-"

"While you're left to pick up the pieces," Klaus interjected.

"The thing is, I think she likes me. I know how I feel about her, I've felt it for a while now but recently I'm starting to think it's mutual," Kol confessed.

"I don't want to scare her off and I really can't stand to see her so upset. So I'm torn, what the hell do I do Nik?"

Klaus puzzled over it for a second and then replied.

"Bonnie's probably feeling extremely hurt and betrayed right now, after the Gilbert boy's abandonment. The last thing she needs is to have someone vying for her affection while she's trying to heal,"

Kol listened patiently and began pacing back and forth the living room.

"So what do I do Nik?"

"If there's one thing I've learned about women over the years, especially since being with Caroline; is that women like to be made to feel as if someone is, listening to them. So be there. Show her that you care and give her space when she needs it. Caroline told me that she's been quite down in the dumps recently. Why don't you get her something to cheer her up, maybe something to keep her busy?"

" _Something to cheer her up and keep her busy,"_ Kol mentally repeated to himself.

"Alright Nik, I'll try out your advice, thank you," Kol said looking around for his coat, an idea suddenly coming to him.

"Anytime little brother, let me know how it all goes. Although I'm sure I'll find out soon enough one way or another,"

"Will do," Kol replied before clicking off the conversation and heading toward the door.

She had a good feeling about this one.

Bonnie clicked submit on her application and smiled biting her index finger between her teeth. Sitting back and shutting her laptop she hoped that her feelings of optimism weren't unfounded.

She wondered what was taking Kol so long. He claimed he was going out to store to get some juice since they had run out.

That was several hours ago.

Just as she thought of him the devil himself strolled through the door. His smile wide and all teeth.

What was really intriguing was the object he had bundled up in a little brown blanket tucked into his arms.

"Did you get the juice?" She asked. He licked his lips conspiratorially. "Not exactly."

Bonnie stood slowly, moving around the couch and hesitantly walking toward him.

"What is that?" She pointed at the package which she swore was now moving, Kol's impish smile only grew bigger.

"Why don't you see for yourself?"

Bonnie narrowed her eyes and gave him a suspicious tilt of her head.

"Kol, if this is some trick..."

"Trust me for once will you?"

Still exerting caution, Bonnie approached the blanket covered item.

She pulled back the material and gasped when a small black nose pushed its way out into the open.

"Is that what I think it is?"

Unable to bear the suspense any longer Kol pulled back the blanket completely, revealing possibly the cutest, most beautiful, Labrador puppy Bonnie had ever seen.

"You didn't?"

Now, suddenly aware of its surroundings, the puppy tried to wrangle free out of Kol's arms. Bonnie caught him and pulled him in close to her chest.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe this, where did you get this?" "From the rescue centre, near the park."

"You know we cannot keep it right? Come on, I'm serious. There's no space and we'll have to buy food. And who's gonna take him out for walks and clean up the little 'gifts' he's sure to leave around the house."

"There's plenty of room in here, it's only a puppy," he replied dodging around the other issues.

"Yes, and puppies grow. Look this might be the single most adorable thing I've ever seen in my life-"

"Present company excluded?" Kol quipped, gesturing to himself. " But, we still can't keep it, end of story."

Not satisfied with that answer Kol lifted the puppy from her arms and held it up to his face, to make it look as though the dog was talking.

"Please don't kick me out, I'll be all alone, wandering the streets, my tiny puppy paws will freeze in the night "

"Kol," Bonnie growled, giving him an unimpressed glare.

"I'll have to turn tricks just to survive." "Kol! Oh my gosh, that is so not fair."

"Please love, come on are you really going to say not to that face, or this one as a matter of fact?"

He held the puppy's face next to his own and made a pleading expression. As luck would have it, the puppy decided to tilt its head and make a heart melting whimpering noise at that very moment.

Bonnie sighed and let her head fall into her hands.

"Ugh, I'm gonna regret this. Fine, fine! We can keep it, but only till we find it another home. I mean it, Kol!"

One month later…

"Kol!. Lavender pooped in the kitchen again,"

"Well love, maybe if you stopped referring to the poor thing as 'Lavender' he wouldn't keep leaving us little presents." "For the last time, I'm calling her Lavender because that is her name," "Well I'm not cleaning it up."

"Why not?"

"Because I did it the last time,"

"Wow, I knew this would happen! It was your idea to get the dog and now you won't even help out."

Kol's eyebrows shot up indignantly.

"I took him for a walk for an hour this morning." "Would you like a medal? Or a gold star perhaps?"

Kol was about to say something else when they were interrupted by a sharp yapping noise and then a small pitiful whining noise.

Kol bent down and scooped the dog up and scratched lightly behind its ears. "Looks like someone's a little distressed by mummy and daddy's fighting," Bonnie sighed and moved to stroke the other side of his head.

"We're sorry little guy, we didn't mean it." "You said guy," Kol pointed out.

"It was a figure of speech," she shot back.

"There's a good boy," Kol murmured stroking the back of its neck lovingly. Bonnie couldn't help but smile at the sight.

"Tell you what, you get a doggie bag and scoop up the turd, and I'll wipe what's left of it off the ground. Deal?"

"Deal."

A pair of young adults strolled through Central Park. The young man held a small dog on a leash in front of him. If you didn't know better, you'd say they were a couple.

"We should probably get him neutered," Bonnie mused, watching their dog Pat (a gender neutral name they had both agreed on after a drunk marathon of Friends' episodes).

"What for?"

"Well he's making a lot of friends here at the doggy park, one day he might get a little too friendly with one of the other lady dogs."

"Point taken," Kol nodded, stooping down to unfasten his leash.

They pair sat down on a nearby bench watching Pat happily frolic around with his other canine friends.

Bonnie without thinking about it, rested her head on Kol's shoulder. "Remember when we first got him?"

"Mmm, and you wanted to get rid of him."

"I just wasn't certain, we were up to the challenge of being good puppy parents, that's all,"

"Excuse me?" Came a frail sounding voice from their immediate left. The pair looked up to see a tiny, hunched over, old lady standing by their bench.

"Is that your dog?"

"Oh ma'am, please excuse him we are so sorry." The lady cocked her head in confusion. "Sorry?"

Bonnie blinked.

"It's just whenever someone starts a sentence like that I just automatically assume that he's done something,"

"Oh no dear, I just came to tell you that he's a lovely breed and the two of you make a lovely couple,"

"Oh, he's not "

" Thank you, that's very kind of you," Kol jumped in.

The old lady's wrinkled face broke out into a smile and then she continued, hobbling her way through the park.

Bonnie gave Kol a look.

"Why did you just lie to that lady?"

"Because I didn't wish to break her poor little, old heart, that's why."

"Besides, there's no harm done, what's she going to do whip out her iPhone and tweet a picture of us." Bonnie snorted. "You're an idiot."

Pat came bounding up to them with a stick in his mouth and dropped it down expectantly at their feet.

"What's that boy? Is that a stick? You want me to throw it for ya?" Bonnie teased playfully him, waving the branch around making his tail thump against the ground enthusiastically.

She held her arm back and then threw the stick as far as she could across the park.

In what seemed like a millisecond, Pat was racing back toward them with it in his mouth.

"Okay," Bonnie sighed. "It's your turn now, I'm gonna go get us some ice cream, I think I see a van over there."

As Bonnie walked away, Pat began yipping impatiently as Kol neglected to continue the game; he was too busy staring at Bonnie leaving on her quest for ice cream.

"Yes, yes," Kol grumbled, bending down to Pat's level. "I'm coming."

"You know, you're supposed to be my lucky charm boy," He said stroking at his fur. "Think you could do something to help me out?"

Pat tilted his head cutely making no indication that he understood a word of what Kol was saying.

He sighed and picked the stick up off the ground.

"So, there's been something I've been meaning to tell you."

"Oh really?" Kol replied, attempting to maneuver a pizza box from under the sleeping dog on the carpet.

"Yeah, so um, remember that magazine job I applied for?" "Mmm."

"Well, they called me up a couple days ago and... I got the job!"

Kol beamed at her and stretched over to embrace her without a second thought. "That's amazing darling, well done."

"Ugh, I just feel really good about this, you know? It feels right."

"I feel like doing something to celebrate," she said, taking a swig of beer.

"Well, it's funny you should say that love. I was just going to ask you, how would you feel about g "

"OH MY GOSH! The fajitas!" Bonnie exclaimed, leaping off of the couch and rushing into the kitchen.

"Kol I am so sorry, I just realised I left them in the oven and I should really check on them, I'll be right back I promise."

"No worries, love," Kol sighed, exasperatedly.

As Bonnie bustled around in the kitchen murmuring about a missing oven mitt; her phone began to buzz on the coffee table.

When it didn't stop Kol was about to give Bonnie a shout when he noticed the name on the caller ID.

Jeremy Gilbert.

What the hell? Did that wanker honestly think he could just call Bonnie up after nearly two months of zero contact whatsoever? Then, of course, there was always the possibility that he and Bonnie had been communicating for a while now without him knowing. If so, Kol felt oddly betrayed. But Bonnie wouldn't do that, not after everything.

Would she?

The phone finally stopped vibrating and Kol picked it up to see that Jeremy had left a voicemail.

He knew he probably shouldn't listen to it but Bonnie was preoccupied in the kitchen and his curiosity got the better of him.

"You have one new message,"

"Hi, Bonnie it's me. I know we haven't talked in awhile; I wanted to call you as soon as I landed but I didn't know if you were still mad at me. I hope you're doing okay, hope Kol isn't driving you too crazy. Look I know I left, and it hurt you but I promise I haven't stopped caring about you, I just think we might've needed some space. Just please call me back when you get this Bonnie. I lo "

"Message deleted,"

He didn't know what made him do it, maybe it was pure selfishness, maybe it was that old Mikaelson vindictive streak.

He quickly placed the phone back down on the table, just as Bonnie came back into the room.

"I left them on the counter to cool, they came out good, I'm so glad they didn't burn this time. Anyway, I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

The whole voicemail thing had him wrapped up in his thoughts for a moment. He looked up faced with Bonnie's hazel coloured eyes staring back at his.

"I wanted to ask you, to "

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

"Omigosh, I'm so sorry, who is that this time of night?"

Luckily Kol had left the phone face down so the name of the caller wasn't showing. But he had a pretty good idea exactly who it was.

"Ignore it, whoever it is, is a royal prick for disturbing you this late in the evening."

"I should still get it," Bonnie said and reached out to pick up the phone but as soon as she did, the seemingly doormat Pat rose up from the floor and snatched the iPhone between his teeth.

"No, Pat! NO. Bad dog, you give that back right now!"

She attempted to wrestle it out of his mouth but he resisted and eventually took off, out of the living room into Kol's bedroom. "Unbelievable," Bonnie said, getting up to chase him. "Here let me," Kol said, rising to his feet.

"Make sure you really tell him off!"

Kol rounded the corner into his room to find their pet in the middle of the room with the phone securely placed in his mouth. Seeing that it was Kol in front of him he let it fall out of his mouth, onto the carpet.

It was slightly drool covered but aside from that no damage was done.

Shutting the door so Bonnie couldn't hear him, Kol knelt down to give Pat some loving scratches behind the ears.

"Well done mate, good boy, I knew I could count on you." People really didn't give dogs enough credit.

"Did you let him have it?" Bonnie asked, when he returned. "He's currently sitting in time out, mulling over his crimes."

"Mmm, good. So, for the third and final time what was it you were gonna ask me?" Kol straightened and took a deep breath.

"Have dinner with me?"

"What?" Bonnie replied breathlessly.

"Well, you wanted to celebrate, let's have dinner, what do you think?"

The knot in his stomach loosened when he saw the smile that appeared on her face.

"Cheers to you, to your new job, and this delicious food if I do say myself." Bonnie lifted her glass and rolled her eyes.

"So you learnt to boil some pasta, big deal," she said, dryly.

They had decided to stay at home for Bonnie's celebration dinner and were currently dining in their dimly lit living room.

Seeing Kol's not so impressed face, she giggled.

"But I appreciate it, honestly. This is really nice, Kol,"

He grinned in response then abruptly got up and made his way to the stereo. Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone" (one of Bonnie's personal favourites) came through the speakers and he extended his hand towards her.

"Dance with me?" She scoffed.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Not in the least. Take my hand, Bonnie Bennett."

She hesitated for a minute, then allowed herself to be swept out of her chair and into Kol's arms feeling the hard planes of his chest pressed up against her body.

"You know we've lived together for four years but these last two months have been the best I've ever had."

She smiled softly as they swayed in time with the music.

"So, you went to all this trouble with soft lighting, the music, that culinary masterpiece on the table," she joked earning a snort from Kol.

"Well, I'm right here Kol, so what now?" She asked in barely a whisper.

Kol's eyes darkened lustfully and slowly his head tilted so he could brush his lips against hers.

Bonnie wound her arms around his neck and the kiss continued soft, gentle and long anticipated.

They were interrupted by a barking sound by their feet.

"I think you've made someone jealous," Bonnie laughed.

"He can wait," Kol murmured, tilting her chin back up so she was facing him.

The kiss resumed and Kol mentally thanked whoever was up there that the odds had been in his favour.

 **A/N:** Hi guys I hope you enjoyed that, just to say if you have a drabble prompt request please inbox me at /AO3 with it or send it to my tumblr inbox - dontbeallupinmyfriesdawg


	4. Date Night

Standing in front of his full-length mirror, Elijah Mikaelson examined two ties held up against his suit. To the untrained eye, one was black and the other one one was an even more boring shade of black but Elijah knew better. The one in his right hand was raven and the one in his left was charcoal. Since his suit was onyx he thought it best to go with the raven black tie. After all, it was one of his favourites.

Carefully placing the rejected garment back on its rightful place on the tie rack, Elijah returned to the mirror and proceeded to lace the tie around his neck in an immaculate half-Windsor knot before undoing it and retying it again just to make sure. Appraising his appearance in his reflection he eventually decided he looked presentable enough.

His attention was taken by the noise of the shower faucet in the background. Picking at some non-existent lint on his sleeve, he wandered toward the en suite bathroom he shared with his wife and lifted his hand to knock.

As if on cue the bathroom door swung open and Katherine emerged, clad only in a towel, her brown locks dripping beads of moisture down her back.

Coming face to face with her husband, a coquettish smile played on her lips.

"'Lijah," she said gleefully, trailing her finger down his chest. "Were you planning on joining me?"

Elijah gently lifted Katherine's hand (partly because it was wet and he was concerned for his suit) and kissed it.

"Actually dearest, my reason for seeking you out is that I fear that your extensive beauty regime may end making us late for our engagement this evening,"

Katherine faced dropped and twisted into a surly pout.

"What's your hurry?" she grumbled sliding past him heading toward her vanity mirror.

"It's just Kol and Bonnie, it's not like we're meeting the queen," she deadpanned.

"Katherine that is hardly the point, they're expecting us at the restaurant at 8:30 sharp and it's already 7:45 -"

"Relax, Elijah we'll be there," Katherine groaned pulling a comb through her still wet hair.

"I should certainly hope so, In all the years I've spent chastising my brother in regards to his poor manners and penchant for tardiness, I'm quite certain he will not miss an opportunity to criticise me for displaying the same behaviour, on this occasion,"

Katherine peered at Elijah's reflection in the mirror. Slowly she rose from her dressing table and padded towards him putting an extra sway in her hips as she did.

"Are you sure, there isn't anything I can do to… persuade you, to stay home," she hummed, looping her arms around his neck and pressed her body against his.

"Katherine..." he murmured warningly.

"We see Kol all the time. Bonnie too; since Caroline's always insists on inviting us to some kind of dumb party at her place. The only difference is now Bonnie and Kol are playing rounds of tonsil tennis together,"

"I'm going to assume that's some sort of euphemism and I'm not going to ask what for, although I can very well imagine. However, unfortunately, Katerina I am currently failing to see your point," Elijah frowned.

"My point is, that we could spend the evening doing something far more entertaining than sitting around, eating breadsticks and having awkward conversation," she said with a suggestive raise of her brow.

"Katherine, I don't-"

Before he could finish his sentence he was interrupted by the unmistakable sound of Katherine's towel hitting the carpet.

Beads of water were still dripping down Katherine's toned and lithe body. Elijah's mouth went dry at the sight of her and his infamous poker face began to slip.

Katherine regarded him with a triumphant smile and stepped forward to undo his tie while peppering kisses on the part of his neck that was visible.

"You are aware of what a devious little minx you are, aren't you?" he groaned as she began to tug on his earlobe with her teeth.

"You love it," she murmured continuing her assault.

"You know this is a nice tie, if you're lucky I might let you tie me up with it and do very bad things to me," she purred.

Regretfully, Elijah sighed and pulled Katherine off of him.

"They'll be plenty of time for that later,"

Katherine scowled and gave him a deep eye roll heading back to her mirror.

"What makes you think the offer will still be open?" she asked looking back at him with a pointed expression.

"Well if you keep up that pouting and ceaseless complaining for the rest of the evening, I'm sure it will warrant some sort of punishment to be carried out on my part," he quipped with a small hint of suggestion in his voice.

Katherine turned to smirk at him and he returned her wry smile before breaking their heated eye contact to straighten his tie.

"Kindly get dressed Katerina," he implored. Every second she wasn't fully clothed a painful reminder that he only had so much self-control and restraint.

Katherine huffed.

"Fine. But I'm not wearing any underwear," she declared with a defiant glare. "And you can think about that while we're making small talk with Bonnie and your little brother,".

With that, she crossed the room still fully naked and headed toward their walk in wardrobe to select an outfit for the evening. Shooting him a smouldering look as she did.

Elijah pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed very deeply.

Scowling irritably at the shirt and tie in his hands, Kol Mikaelson proceeded to throw it haphazardly onto the bed, with the five other shirts and tie combinations his girlfriend had picked out for the evening. He was dressed only in his dress pants and socks and his hair was still wet and tousled from the shower.

He positively hated wearing a tie. In fact, he could-could count the number of times he had on his hand: Finn's wedding, graduation, Elijah's wedding and his father's funeral.

But he had decided to oblige with the formal dress code that evening. He knew Elijah would give him one of those looks if he didn't not that that particularly bother him - he was used to it by now - but Bonnie had literally threatened him with the prospect of certain death if he didn't put something other than basketball shorts and a t-shirt.

And honestly, for someone nearly a head shorter than him she was downright terrifying sometimes.

He sighed looking down at his watch. Said girlfriend would not be pleased to realise he wasn't fully clothed yet. He prayed he could hone in on the natural charm God had gifted him at birth and successfully convince Bonnie, staying home and ordering take out was a much better idea.

Talk of the devil.

"Kol!? Are you seriously not dressed yet," Bonnie demanded.

Despite the less than happy scowl on his girlfriend's face, she looked absolutely stunning in the black velvet evening gown she had chosen, matched with black stiletto pumps. He smiled inwardly noting the silver pendant he had gotten her for her birthday hanging around her delicate neck.

"Relax darling, I'll be ready in tick," he replied his tone infuriatingly calm.

"Do you know what time it is?!" Bonnie asked incredulously. She glanced down at the discarded outfits on the bed.

"What was wrong with these?" she asked picking up one of them.

"You how much I detest wearing a tie," he sighed giving her a pleading look.

"Well we're going to nice restaurant making an effort is the least you could do," she paused "You know how to do that right?"

Kol rolled his eyes.

"Besides the dinner jacket won't look right without a tie," she continued smoothing down the material.

Kol's eyebrows shot up.

"Um pardon my love, dinner what!?" he growled.

"A dinner jacket. You know something one would wear if they're going out to dinner at a nice place," Bonnie supplied.

"Absolutely not,"

"Kol-"

"You can't be serious. we're only going out for a meal with my brother. You do realise that?" he said.

"Yes but he was kind enough to invite us out so I just want to make an effort," she shrugged.

Kol took the shirt for her and began putting it on.

"This all could have been avoided you know," he reminded her.

"Kol for the last time I was just being polite. At Caroline's birthday party, Elijah commented on how he hadn't seen us in a while so I said ' _Maybe we should all hang out sometime?'_ you know, the way people do? How was I supposed to know he'd take it literally?" Bonnie explained exasperatedly.

"Because it's Elijah that's why" Kol snorted.

"Well it was still nice of him to offer," she insisted.

"Yes, spending the evening it some stuffy restaurant, listening to my brother prattle on for God know how long. Lovely," Kol grumbled.

"Quit complaining," Bonnie said grabbing the ends of his tie and pretending to choke him. "Now hold still let me do this up,"

Kol watched her intently as she did. Bonnie flushed feeling his eyes on her, he really did have a way of making her feel so desired with one look. She had to redo the-the knot a couple of times as the burning heat of his gaze had significantly diminished her concentration.

When she'd finished she stepped back to admire him.

"There see. You look handsome," she stated approvingly.

He grinned stepping forward to circle her waist.

"Thank you, love," he murmured tilting his head to capture her lips with his. Bonnie hummed into the kiss placing her hands around his shoulders, momentarily allowing herself to be caught up in the moment.

Eventually, she broke the kiss and attempted to prise herself out of Kol's arms.

"Nice try hot shot but it's not gonna work," she insisted.

Kol began to drag his lips tenderly down her neck ignoring her protests.

"Give it a couple more minutes sweetheart, I guarantee you'll be singing a different tune," he smirked slowly lifting the hem of her dress and skimming his hands against her thighs.

"Ugh, you are unbelievable," she huffed smacking his hands off of her.

As she left the room she turned back and glared warningly at him.

"Get. Dressed. Kol,"

Kol pouted, noting regretfully how nicely the dress Bonnie was wearing fit her. Especially from behind.

Honestly he could happily throttle Elijah.

Katherine Pierce watched her husband walk into the master bedroom and sigh for what must have been the two-hundredth time in the space of five minutes.

"Katherine, please tell me you are now remotely ready to leave?" Elijah propping himself up against the wall.

"Well, I'm slightly more ready than the last time you asked me," Katherine replied sarcasm dripping in her voice.

"Darling please don't take this the wrong way but must you be so high maintenance," Elijah questioned.

"You married a model Elijah, maintenance is my only skill," she drawled in reply.

Katherine ignored the dramatic way Elijah rolled his eyes and continued straightening her brown tresses in the mirror.

"What else do you have to do," he implored.

"Aside from my hair? I need to pick out a pair of shoes," Katherine replied.

"Let me help,"

"No. I need a very specific pair, you wouldn't know which ones" she dismissed him.

"Do you know?" he countered.

"I'll know when I see them," she shrugged.

Elijah resisted the temptation to roll his eyes again and instead strolled into their (Katherine's) walk in wardrobe, to find some suitable choices.

He emerged a couple minutes later and presented his selection to Katherine. Only to have every pair swiftly rejected

"No,"

"No,"

"No, absolutely not,"

"Ugh, are you kidding me?"

"No,"

"You know Elijah, if you're going blind, that's really something I ought to know about,"

"Katerina, are you trying to be deliberately obtuse?" Elijah asked disdainfully.

This time, it was Katherine's turn to roll her eyes.

"It's not fault you have such bad taste in shoes," she replied.

"Wh- bad taste!? I resent that, I-"

"Wait!" she interrupted "What about those?" She said pointing to a strappy, sandal pair.

Elijah held them up for her.

"Ew, on second thoughts no," she said wrinkling her nose.

"Katherine for the love of God-"

"Ooh, those. Over there, the Manolo Blahniks," Katherine exclaimed.

"Those are perfect," she hummed admiring them. "Well done Elijah,"

She grabbed the shoes and stooped down to put them on. Then she straightened up and tapped her chin thoughtfully.

"Now what purse should I take?" she mused.

Her smile grew seeing Elijah's unamused expression.

"Oh unclench 'Lijah, I've already got one, see?" she smirked grabbing it off her dressing table to show him.

She pecked Elijah on the lips playfully and strutted out of the room.

Elijah let out one last long-suffering sigh before following her out of the door.

"Bonnie?"

Kol stuck his head around the door, to find Bonnie in the room, preening in the mirror.

"Wasn't it, you hurrying me a couple of minutes ago," he quipped.

"I'm just making sure I look okay," she mumbled absently mindedly pulling at her dress.

He shook his head as he stepped toward her.

"You look perfect," he insisted dropping a kiss on her shoulder.

"Which one of us is driving?" Bonnie asked.

"You," he said firmly "I'm going to need a large supply of alcohol to get me through this evening," Kol deadpanned.

Bonnie sighed disapprovingly and elbowed past him.

He chuckled stuffing his hands in his pockets, following her out the room.

"What are you ordering?" Bonnie asked studying her menu.

"Something strong," Kol answered.

"I meant food Kol," Bonnie growled glaring at him from over the top of her menu.

"I don't know, I'm not really hungry," he sighed.

"Well that will happen when you eat an entire jumbo bag of cool ranch Doritos before dinner," she snapped.

Kol flashed her a guilty expression.

"Yeah that's right I saw the bag in the trash can," she said accusingly.

"Our sincere apologies," came Elijah's voice floating in the restaurant.

"But we had a mascara emergency," he said moving to help remove Katherine's coat.

"Oh can it, if you hadn't braked like that at the light I wouldn't have asymmetrical eyes right now," Katherine fired back.

"Do try not to make a scene Katherina, I assure your eyes are as symmetrical as always," Elijah said attempting to sooth her.

Katherine rolled her eyes and seated herself.

"Miss Bennett, it's a pleasure to see you, might I say how lovely you look this evening," Elijah said extending his hand toward her.

"Thank you, Elijah, it's lovely to see you too, but you know I did say you can call me Bonnie," she replied pressing a kiss to his cheek.

"What's up little Mikaelson?" Katherine said addressing Kol smirking.

"Kitty Kat," he replied returning conspiratorial smile.

"I just love your earrings tonight," Kol said leaning forward and squinting "Those aren't my brother's balls you wearing are they?" he said grinning childishly.

"Kol!" Bonnie yelled, angrily stabbing him in the chest with her elbow.

Katherine gave him one of her famous "I'll get you for that one" smiles and bit into a breadstick.

"Glad to see you've brought your most impeccable manners with you tonight, brother," Elijah said disapprovingly.

"He's- he's joking," Bonnie said hurriedly flashing an apologetic look in Elijah's direction.

"Not to worry Bonnie, I have long since gotten used to my brother's antics," Elijah said picking up a menu.

Bonnie turned to glare at Kol indicating that he should wipe the smirk off his lips.

 _"Behave,"_ she mouthed at him.

He just shrugged and went back to studying his menu.

Eventually, the party all individually decided what they wanted to eat. Bonnie went with a simple stake; Elijah ordered some salmon; Kol ordered just about everything on the menu despite his earlier claims that he wasn't hungry; Katherine did the exact opposite and went with a salad.

Secretly Bonnie was impressed that Katherine ordered anything more than a toothpick with an olive on it.

But Katherine certainly made up for her lack of food with a number of drinks she ordered.

"That's a nice dress you're wearing Bon Bon," Katherine commented while pushing her food around her plate.

Bonnie looked up, momentarily startled by Katherine's out of character compliment. She braced herself for the punchline.

But it never came. Instead, Katherine just smiled innocently looking expectantly at her for a response.

"Oh, um... thank you, Katherine. You look nice too," Bonnie replied uncertainly.

"Mmm," Katherine hummed slipping a single crouton in her mouth "I never see any dresses like that when I go shopping. Maybe it's just been awhile since I visited the _regular_ department stores," she replied casually.

 _Whomp, there it is._ Bonnie thought.

Bonnie gave Katherine a fake smile recognising the thinly veiled insult a mile away.

Kol looked up from stuffing his face noting a significant change in Bonnie's posture.

"Well, you fit so _nicely_ into your dress Katherine. Honestly, I wish I had the discipline to go the whole day eating virtually nothing," Bonnie countered with the same casual tone Katherine had used.

Now both men seemed to sense the tension in the air. Elijah quickly changed the direction of the discussion.

"This restaurant has a lovely ambience, especially this time of year. It's why I enjoy coming here. Bonnie, did my brother ever tell you about the time our family visited Peru on holiday?" Elijah asked wiping his mouth.

Kol cut in before Bonnie could answer.

"If it's the story about the waiter and your matching bow ties, that you tell at literally every family gathering then yes, we've all heard it," Kol growled stabbing his chicken with his fork.

Katherine had fought down the urge to laugh and covered it up with a cough instead.

"Have some water, Katherine," Bonnie said pushing her glass toward her "Don't worry it's calorie free,"

As Katherine's expression darkened and she looked like she was about to say something back Elijah steered the conversation back again.

"Might I propose a toast?"

"Not if you can help it," Kol groaned.

"-To the four of us," Elijah said cutting Kol a look "Enjoying a lovely meal in each other's company," he said raising his glass.

Reluctantly, the other 3 raised their glasses and let them clink together.

Katherine lowered her glass to her lips and proceeded to knock back the entire thing earning her a somewhat disapproving look from Elijah.

"What!?" she hissed "You dragged me here and now I can't drink?" she said as if Bonnie and Kol weren't within earshot.

At that moment, the red-headed waitress that had taken their order came up to their table smiling jovially.

"Hello. Are we all okay over here? Can I get you some desserts?" she asked her pen poised against her notepad.

"We're good, thanks," Bonnie replied almost immediately.

"Yes, check please," Elijah agreed and began to pull out his wallet.

"This was really nice," Bonnie said leaning in to embrace Elijah.

"Most definitely we should all meet again at some point," Elijah agreed.

"So will Bonnie give you a little doggie treat for being a good boy tonight?" Katherine murmured to Kol as their partners exchanged niceties.

"Very funny Kat," Kol grumbled under his breath.

"I just call it like I see it," she said smiling spitefully.

"Bitch,"

"Asshole,"

"Gold digger,"

"Dipshit,"

They smirked at one another for a moment before Kol rolled his eyes and checked his watch, wishing Bonnie and Elijah would hurry up.

"Drive safely," Elijah said pulling his keys out and unlocking his car.

"You too," Bonnie replied good-naturedly linking arms with Kol.

Katherine turned and blew Kol a kiss before she left.

"Text me later little Mikaelson," she paused and gave Bonnie a malicious smile "Bye Bon Bon,"

Bonnie only waved and gave her the most genuine smile she could muster, despite herself.

Then both couples turned and got into their respective cars.

"That bitch! I knew her giving me a compliment was too good to be true! Ugh, we are never doing that again," Bonnie huffed putting the car in gear.

Kol only smiled in silent triumph and leaned foward to turn on the radio, as Bonnie pulled out of the parking lot.

"Okay, I don't care what you say we are literally never doing that again. That was two and a half hours of my life I'll never get back! Even going to the stupid opera was better than that," Katherine said disgustedly as soon as the car door was shut.

"Well perhaps if you made more of an effort," Elijah supplied, already starting to feel a headache coming on.

"Ugh, other people are the worst," Katherine said scrunching up her face and turning her head to look out the window as she pouted.

Elijah just sighed in response.


	5. For Want of A Better Word

**For Want of A Better Word.**

 **Summary:** Loosely based off of this prompt ➡ _Imagine Person B working as a volunteer at the library for the summer, and they love to read. One day Person A is walking by the library and sees a super cute person in the library, who happens to be B. A walks in to flirt with them, before realizing they've come to a place full of books, and they hate reading._

For leianaberrie

There were few things short of a hurricane that could Kol Mikaelson out of bed - let alone get him to step foot out of his room - at 2:45 in the afternoon, in the beginning of the summer break. But an actually natural disaster hitting the state of Virginia would have been far more welcome than his sister barging into his room, disturbing a rather pleasant dream he was having; which involved him rescuing an early 2000's era Halle Berry, riding a jet ski, wearing a tuxedo.

Needless to say, the look he gave Rebekah as her overpriced pumps crossed the threshold, could easily freeze over hell. Not that this seemed to bother or deter her at all.

"Get. _Out_. Bekah." Kol practically snarled, head buried in a mass of sheets.

"Ah, how the tables have turned little brother. Usually, you're the one barging into my room unannounced; invading my personal space; doing my head in with your antics. How I love the summer break," she purred in amusement.

After snaking his arm out of the covers to flip her the bird, Kol sunk further down into the sheets and willed himself to fall asleep again, so he could block out whatever drivel Rebekah was surely about to spout.

"I need a favour,"

 _There it is._ He thought.

"Fat chance," Kol scoffed.

Rebekah let out a disgruntled, unladylike huff and in an act of pure spite, she strode over to the bed and drew the sheets off of Kol's body.

"Oi!?"

"Do I have your attention now?" Rebekah asked, smiling sweetly at him.

" _Get. Out_."

Ignoring him, Rebekah took a seat on the end of the bed and crossed one leg over the other.

"Do you remember that time you took Nik's car out without permission and left that giant scratch on the side?"

Kol reluctantly forced his eyes open and shot Rebekah the filthiest look he could muster.

"I don't know what you're talking about,"

"Oh, I think you do,"

Using on arm to prop himself up and the other the to rub the sleep from his eyes, Kol regarded his sister with a sceptical look.

"That's a rather large hand to play sister. Are you sure you want to go there?"

Rebekah smiled.

"I'm certain. Don't worry dear brother, I have plenty more tidbits for blackmail, ready at my disposal,"

"So do I Bekah and make no mistake, I'll remember this. The only reason you're getting your way this time is because Nik's already angry enough at me for breaking the toaster,"

"I have library books due in," Rebekah replied with ease, barely flinching at Kol's threat. "Get them to the library before I'm fine, won't you,"

"Is that it!?" Kol bolstered. "Can't you get one of your innumerous boyfriends to do that for you instead,"

"I'm going into to town to do some shopping. The library's in the other direction,"

"So!?"

"So, if you go now you'll make it back before supper,"

Rebekah made a swift exit from the room, before the notion of strangling her could cross Kol's mind. Then there was a loud thudding noise outside the door, which he assumed to be the books. Cursing the heavens and anyone who would listen that he wasn't born an only child, Kol hauled himself out of bed and trudged in the direction of the shower.

Upon entering what was probably the oldest building Kol had ever seen in his life, the thought occurred to him that he'd never actually been to a public library or any library in general, of his own volition. Based on what he knew about, he had no real desire to step foot in one anyway. They were unnaturally quiet and therefore everyone expected you to be as well, and was filled (Kol assumed) with stuffy old people and speckled, glasses wearing, loners with nothing better to do and of course there was the abundance of dusty old books, _everywhere_ and really that alone was enough to turn him off.

The place met his expectations well enough. There were less OAPs shuffling around than he originally imagined but there was large portion of pale-looking, no-mates, who looked as if they hadn't seen the sun in days; as well as a small group of hipster types were gathered by the bean bags, all holding the same book, probably having some sort of pretentious debate on symbolism and character motifs; plus various other people scattered behind computer desks, firing off emails and listening to music.

The plan had been to got to the desk, drop off the library books (bar one just out of spite, to show Bekah he was nobody's lackey) and go back home, to continue his regular routine of eating nothing but junk food, sleeping for hours and the occasional session of XBox live when he Jeremy's sleep patterns happened to coincide.

Kol did double take as he approached the library reception area, all preconceived notions shattering when instead of an old, grey-haired woman, who wore smelt like mothballs; sat at the desk was a young, attractive, dark skinned woman, deeply engrossed in the novel she was reading. Staring at her, Kol felt an instant attraction. The non-creepy thing to do would have been to signal for her attention so that he could conduct his business and go. Instead, Kol chose to stand in front of the desk, gawking at her as if he'd lost the power of speech.

Silently, Kol observed how her delicate features changed in response to what she read. Her brow furrowing once she reached the end of a page. A small row of white teeth appearing, worrying her soft pink lower lip in anticipation, as she turned to the next. It was oddly mesmerising and not matter how much Kol willed himself to speak, move- something; he found he couldn't.

A pair of startled green eyes suddenly met his, looking slightly mortified.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry," she expressed, setting aside her book and giving him an apologetic, but dazzling smile. "I got a little too involved in this but well, I'm sure you know how it is,"

Kol frowned in confusion, following the woman's eyes toward the pile of Rebekah's theatre studies books that he'd rested on the desk. Snapping out of it, he shook himself from his daze and flashed her a confident smile; thanking his inherited Mikaelson genes for the blush that he managed to put on the woman's pretty face.

"Ah yes, I completely relate. You won't meet a more avid reader," he lied easily.

"Oh really!" The woman exclaimed, her eyes lighting up in excitement. "What are some of your favourites?"

Kol bit down on his lower lip, the colour draining from his face as he was caught in an outright lie.

"Uhh… Hemingway?" he offered, picking a name randomly from one of the many, paint dry authors that Elijah was always going on about.

"Oh really?" the brunette repeated, this time her tone slightly more cynical with a hint of amusement. "No offence, but you don't strike me as the Hemingway type."

"You still haven't told me your name," Kol pointed out, hoping the change of subject would distract her.

She gave him a knowing look and reopened her book.

"It's Bonnie,"

"Bonnie," he repeated, trying the name out on his tongue. "Fitting, a beautiful name for a beautiful woman."

Bonnie looked up at him, from beneath her eyelashes, clearly unimpressed.

"Is there something I can do for you Kol?"

He smirked.

"I'm just returning these," he said gesturing to the pile of books.

"Huh, theatre studies." Bonnie nodded picking up one of the books to scan it. "Makes sense, you seem to be quite the actor," she deadpanned, causing Kol's grin to widen.

Their eyes met for the briefest moments and Kol swore he heard Bonnie's breath hitch ever so slightly. In a second, though, the moment was over and Bonnie dropped her gaze and went back to scanning in the books.

Kol lingered, content to just watch as Bonnie completed the otherwise mundane task.

"You're all good know. You don't have to stand there while I do this," she insisted.

"Apologies love," Kol said flirtatiously, tilting forward to lean on the desk. "I'm just thoroughly impressed with the customer service in here,"

Bonnie rolled her eyes at him.

"You don't go to many libraries do you?"

"Not really but I have a feeling that's about to change,"

 **A Month Later**

"Excuse me,"

Bonnie looked up at the pile of books she was stamping to glare up at the person on the other side of the desk, instantly recognising their voice.

"Do you have this book in a ten?"

Bonnie narrowed her eyes and shot Kol a withering look. Despite her obvious ire the foolish grin plastered on his face didn't waver.

"Kol," Bonnie began through gritted teeth. "If you aren't going to actually borrow a book, then do me a favour and get the hell out."

Kol frowned and tutted.

"Now, now Bonnibel darling. It's a public library. You've got no grounds to throw me out of here. Now if I was streaking through here naked-"

"Oh, my Gosh!" Bonnie hissed attracting the attention of her boss, Edna; a middle-aged woman in her fifties. She gave the pair a stern look and pressed her finger to her lips.

Kol had stopped by the library nearly every day for the past four weeks and Bonnie was close to tearing her hair out. At first, he'd show up and sit in one of the chairs and pretend to flip through a book of pull a battered looking newspaper out of his bag; all the while, not-so-secretly checking her out. He'd linger by the shelves while she was on stacking duty asking her nonsensical questions and flirt shamelessly. Bonnie had to conclude that Kol must have an awful lot of free time during the break because his favourite activity appeared to be showing up at the library and driving her crazy.

The worst part was that she couldn't deny that she did feel attracted to him; she'd probably accepted if he'd just asked her out in the first place like a normal person. If anything, now, she was deliberately ignoring his advances out of pure spite.

"You are going to hell you know that," she growled at him.

Kol's eyes widened and he placed his hand on his chest in faux horror.

"You wound me, love,"

"I'd love to actually wound you, _trust me_. But my boss probably wouldn't very happy with me if I did," Bonnie muttered.

"Well, you're on a break in ten minutes-"

"-It's downright disturbing that you know that,"

"-So why don't you join me, for a coffee and we can work on all that tension that's clearly been building up inside you, from working in this stuffy old place," Kol suggested.

"The only reason for any tension inside me; is you," Bonnie replied irritably.

"Well then, by all means, allow me to relieve it," Kol smirked, wiggling his thick eyebrows at her.

Bonnie felt her patience snap. Shutting her eyes, she slowly counted down from ten; she opened them again only to find Kol's smug face still staring back at her.

"What's it going to take for you to stop badgering me," she demanded to lean over the counter and giving him a hard stare.

"It's quite simple," he beamed at her. "One hour of your time. One hour to convince you to spend another few in my company,"

Bonnie arched an eyebrow challengingly.

"One date?" she asked.

Kol nodded leaning forward in anticipation that it might just be his lucky day.

"Well, in that case, I'd have to go with… hell no,"

Bonnie tossed the hair off her shoulder and strutted confidently away from Kol as he snickered softly and murmured something about them all coming back eventually.

Yeah, Kol was hot, he didn't know it yet but there was a sliver of a chance for him if he could show Bonnie that he was worth it. Damned if she didn't make him work for it, though.


	6. The Witch & The Poltergeist

prompt: any ship + you're a ghost living in my apartment and you can't remember how you died but every time you touch me your memories seep into me and sorry bro but your ex had you murdered.

a/n: this is terrible I'm so sorry. I decided to do make this kennett because the whole feeling things through touches creamed Bonnie to me; plus if anyone's going to be murdered by their ex…

warning: themes of death, slightly dark toward the end.

"Get up asshole!" Bonnie demanded, shoving Kol abruptly off of the couch. He started from his sleep in shock and let his head loll backwards onto the floor, as he stared up at Bonnie disorientated.

"It happened again!" she growled. "What. Did. You. Do!?"

"What the bloody hell are you on about?" Kol bristled in response. "I was in the middle of nice dream before you-"

"I don't care, I don't care what you were dreaming about or if I interrupted your precious sleep Kol. Do you wanna know what I've been doing all night instead of sleeping?! Hanging out in some sleazy looking bar, with God awful music on full blast, watching a bunch of people doing lines a the table!"

Kol's face formed into a look of understanding and he nodded, pulling himself up off the floor and back onto the couch.

"Did you touch me?" Bonnie demanded, glaring down at him.

He sighed.

"I came into your room because you left your phone on the sofa."

Bonnie arched her eyebrows.

"And?"

"And, you looked cold so I threw a blanket over you. I didn't realise we made contact; apologies love,"

Bonnie closed her eyes and huffed, lifting her hands to rub at her temples. When she reopened her eyes Kol was still staring up at her, his brown eyes soft and almost angelic. The revelation of his random act of kindness made it infuriatingly difficult of for her to remain angry with him. Gingerly, she plopped down on the couch, being careful not to brush shoulders with him as she did.

Bonnie's living arrangement was unique to that of most people she knew. The primary reason being, that her roommate was technically undead. Kol Mikaelson, in a past life, had been a lead guitar player in a group called The Originals, a punk rock group comprising of him and his four siblings. (Bonnie had personally never heard of them but Kol insisted they were pretty big in London at time so she'd taken his word for it).

In the peak of the band's success, they'd relocated to the states in order to gain more publicity. Six months into their stay, Kol had died suddenly and unexpectedly at the ripe old age of twenty-six while walking out of a nightclub. He had no recollection of how of why and now nearly 50 years later he was still haunting his old flat (which was supposed to be Bonnie's perfect rent controlled dream apartment) presumably cursed to remain there for the rest of eternity until he found 'peace'. Whatever that was.

Bonnie was the first tenant that he hadn't actively driven out of the place before they'd gotten a chance to unpack their moving boxes. Something about her 'alluring beauty and charm' he'd said.

In hindsight, Bonnie shouldn't really have been surprised that this sort of thing was happening to her. Growing up in Mystic Falls had prepared her for a lifetime of supernatural hijinks. Plus she was a witch and a disaster magnet extraordinaire. Coming home to find a strange, slightly translucent man sitting in her kitchenette, devouring a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch was far from the strangest thing that had ever happened to her. Which really said something about her.

The worst thing (besides having to contend with Kol's generally irritating personality) was the visions. The faintest skin to skin contact could plunge Bonnie decades back in time, head first into one of Kol's deranged memories; helpless to feel, smell and experiencing everything that happened around her. Neither of them could figure out whether it was a witch thing or a ghost thing that was causing them to happen, all Bonnie knew was that it was an inconvenience and a nuisance. It was only sheer stubbornness and the fact that she'd blown a good bit of her paycheck decorating the apartment, that had stopped her from moving out of there and finding somewhere else to live. That being said, the thought still crossed her mind. Frequently.

"If it helps, I think we're getting closer," Kol murmured breaking the silence.

Bonnie turned and gave him an incredulous look.

"Seriously? Tell me that you're not still holding on to the idea, that your drug induced memories are all some kind of puzzle pieces that will eventually help to solve the mystery of your death?"

Kol got up and stretched.

"Think about it. You're a witch, before you, this… the touching thing never happened before,"

"That's because nobody's ever hung around here long enough for you to test that theory," Bonnie grumbled.

"The club that you went to this time around; was it Charlie's by any chance?" Kol asked, ignoring her previous comment and looking down at her hopefully.

"Wh- I don't know Kol!? I have no idea what the sleazy nightclub's name was. I was too busy being in shock at the mountains of illegal cocaine in front of me!"

"Well, the club was called Charlie's for a reason, love. Mmm, nineteen sixty-nine," he sighed wistfully. "What a time to be alive,"

Bonnie scoffed and tucked her legs underneath her on the couch.

"Well, I'm glad you're enjoying your little moment of nostalgia; meanwhile I'll just lie here and recover after not getting a wink of sleep last night. You know the visions aren't like dreams, right? It's like I'm physically right there when it's all happening, wide awake the whole time"

"As I said, we could be getting closer to putting you out of your misery darling," Kol said, beaming at her in a way that was frankly only irritating in her sleep deprived state.

"That club was the last place I remember being in Bonnie, love. You know, before my very unfortunate, untimely death, of course,"

"So what's your point?" Bonnie hummed, trying to keep her eyes from shutting as she reclined backwards onto the cushions.

"My point, darling, is that we could be mere seconds away from the exact moment itself!"

Bonnie cocked one eye open and frowned.

"Don't sound so excited weirdo. I mean how many separate times have you been to this club anyway? It's not as if you could tell one night from the other at the time back when you were out partying, let alone now," she pointed out.

Kol looked as if he was going to say something else but Bonnie could feel the waves of sleep lapping at her body and she was in need of a shower to wash the lingering, icky feeling, she had after spending an evening (however simulated) in Kol's favourite drinking hole. So she got up before he could speak.

"I'm gonna use the bathroom," Bonnie sighed, tugging at her hair with one hand and pulling up her sleep shorts with the other.

"Sorry again, love," Kol called after her as she disappeared from the room.

Bonnie flashed him a half-hearted smile and shut the door of her bedroom. Kol might be a royal pain in the ass the majority of the time but she found his remorse was always genuine whenever he accidently induced the visions.

It wasn't his fault, Bonnie knew that and being dead had to suck especially when you had no idea how it happened in the first place and if she thought she could help Kol, she would. However Bonnie stood by her previous statement, if these memories of Kol's were some sort of breadcrumb trail, slowly leading them to the truth; God knows how long it would take before they got any sort of clarity on the situation. It was a wild goose chase. A coin toss. A guessing game.

And honestly Bonnie didn't move over 400 miles away from home, just to be stuck in yet another paradigm of magical ex machina at her expense. Was it too much to ask to live a remotely normal existence for once in her life?

Bonnie slipped her clothes off and got in the shower. As she began lathering up the bar of soap in her hand she came to a decision. The spray of the shower hit her skin and she shut her eyes contemplating how she would go about breaking the news she had for Kol.

"Good shower love?" Kol smirked as Bonnie emerged in the kitchen. She rolled her eyes at the salacious look on Kol's face as he wiggled his eyebrows in her direction. Only he could take the most innocent thing and make it sound dirty and provocative.

Still, she knew his crude humour was purely for the purpose of gaining a reaction from her. Despite everything, Bonnie found she was going to miss the troublesome poltergeist. She felt her chest clench as she hovered by the table.

"Something wrong?" Kol garbled through a mouthful of cereal, watching Bonnie's carefully.

She shuffled uncomfortably and hesitated before she took a seat opposite him on of the kitchen chairs.

"We need to talk," she said softly.

"If this is about your shampoo," Kol began, putting down his spoon. "I know promised I stop using it, darling but it's really not my fault. They shouldn't make those things smell so darn good. I'm afraid I've always been a bit of an addict-"

"Wh- no Kol this isn't about the shampoo- But wait, really you're still using it?!"

Kol gave her a sheepish look before shovelling another spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

"I think maybe… I think it's time I moved out and found another place,"

There was a loud clattering noise as Kol's spoon fell from his hands into the bowl of what was now mostly milk and he gazed at Bonnie with a horror stricken expression.

"What's that now?"

"I can't do this anymore," she said bluntly. "I've just... spent my whole life being this performing magical genie for everyone I know. Now I'm living with a ghost from the 1960s and time travelling into drunk rocker's paradise every 3 seconds! What part of that is normal?!"

Kol blinked at her.

"Darling your a witch. Did you ever imagine your life would have any semblance of normality?"

"I have to try, Kol" Bonnie sighed. "I have a job and school and plans for a future. And this-"

She gestured with her arms.

"-Can't be happening if I'm ever going to where I want. Which is why I have to move on, so I can at least attempt at a life that doesn't sound like the premise of a homeless man's fever dream" she insisted.

Kol snorted loudly. Bonnie's shoulders sagged in response.

"You understand right?"

Kol gave Bonnie a once over. A sad smile formed on his face as he got up and began to pace.

"Kol?"

"Ah, Bonnie Bennett..."

"Are you about to guilt trip me?" she asked wearily looking up at him through the gaps in her fingers.

He shook his head.

"I'm attempting to do something that's a little foreign to me,"

"What do you mean?" Bonnie questioned.

Kol expelled another heavy breath.

"Dying really gives you perspective. I realised, twenty-six years isn't a very long time to live. I spent everyday living life as if it were my last and then one day… it was. I've been walking around for nearly half a century alone, with only a few small pleasure to entertain me and not a single soul for company because nobody could see me. And then finally, a pretty little lass walks in here and instead of looking through me; she looks right at me and screams. Which was honestly the happiest moment I've had since I kicked the bucket all those years ago."

"Only you would say something like that," Bonnie huffed.

"What I'm trying to express, poorly I might add. Is that I'll miss you. Sorely. This… existence if you can call it that was withering away my sanity bit by bit and then you came along and helped me to feel human again. I'm sorry, all I've given you in return were strange, unwanted visits into scenes from my wayward past, sweetheart. What else can I say."

Bonnie sniffed slightly and dabbed gently at her eye with the back of her hand, having not expected such emotive, sentiments to come from him.

"I only wish I could have known you back then, I think we could have been quite the thing," he flirted, his mouth forming a half-smile.

Ah yes, Kol just wouldn't be Kol if he was actually capable of being serious for more than five seconds.

"I doubted there would have been much of a future for us." Bonnie scoffed teasingly. "Sleazy rock stars aren't exactly my type,"

"You talk a good game, love. But believe you me, there wasn't a woman alive capable of resisting my charms back in the day,"

"I guess I'll never know," Bonnie chuckled rising from her seat.

There was a long silence as Bonnie walked away from Kol towards the kitchen entrance. Although as she did, something stopped her suddenly and she turned back around to face him.

"For what's it's worth it wasn't completely awful living with you either," she smiled, leaning against the doorway. "Even though you are a complete ass sometimes,"

Kol didn't respond. He stared pensively into space behind her instead.

"Kol?" Bonnie called out. "Are you… okay? What's-"

"-I'm going to ask you something and if you say no- well, I'll understand but I need to ask,"

"Uhm, okay?"

"Will you go back? Just one last time, I know you don't have any faith in the visions but I truly believe we're close. If it's possible, then I'd like to find peace and make my descent to the afterlife. Which I have no doubt will be some variation of Hell and I'll be amongst the other great rock legends of all time,"

Bonnie scoffed and laughed despite herself.

"And if you don't find 'peace'. If there's nothing? If this vision is just another blurred alcohol induced haze?"

"Then we would have tried," Kol answered. "I'll stay here and submit to my fate of haunting the unsuspecting idiots that attempt to move in after you and you'll go and live the rest of you life, Bonnie Bennett. Your nice, perfect, supernatural drama-free life,"

"I'll do it," she immediately replied.

Kol frowned.

"You will?"

"Like you said, I'm moving out, it's just one more time and I've got nothing else to loose, so I guess, yeah,"

Kol flashed her a brilliant smile and stepped toward her.

"Thank you," he murmured. "You've made an old ghost very happy,"

Kol clasped both her hands in his and Bonnie felt a familiar shiver go through her body.

Bonnie was standing in an alleyway. Instinctively Bonnie wrapped her arms around herself as she felt the cold hit her. The visions had an inconvenient habit of transporting Bonnie in whatever clothes she happened to be wearing at the time to and she'd forgotten to grab a cardigan before she and Kol made contact. To say she felt extremely awkward the night before, sitting in a crowded bar in only her sleep shorts and a vest was an understatement. Even if no one could see her.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Mary"

Bonnie jumped, as tall, bearded man, with dark thick hair, drifted into the alley followed by a small redheaded woman in a black trench coat.

"Are you getting cold feet on me Sam?" the woman replied in a steely voice.

"Course' not, you know I'd do anything for you. But-"

"But?"

"This seems a bit extreme don't you think? I mean what if you're caught? What if-"

"-Tell you what Sam, why don't you leave all the heavy thinking to me, alright? Just make sure the car's ready for when I get out of here,"

The man stared at her for a second, uncertainty still evident on his , he turned and walked away; leaving the small woman by herself in the dark.

Bonnie walked closer to where she stood until she was right next to her and studied her face. Her features were pinched into a look of determination but her eyes sparkled with something else, something that resembled sadness. Regret even.

Suddenly there was a noise and Mary ducked out of immediate vision and pressed her back against the wall of the building.

A door at the side of the building she was standing by swung open abruptly and a man swaggered out. The walkway was very dimly lit so Bonnie did have much to go by but as he turned ever so slightly to face her Bonnie was almost positive the man in question was Kol.

As he stumbled down the steps, clearly off his head drunk, Mary stepped out of the shadows with a gun clasped in her right hand. Bonnie opened her mouth to scream or speak. Anything. but whatever she wanted to say refused to come out. Kol took three steps down the path leading out of the alley and Mary lifted her arm and pointed the gun straight, in Kol's direction.

She pulled the trigger and a single bullet shot out landed in the back of his head, smack in the centre. Kol stilled on the spot and swayed slightly before hitting the concrete, face first. By the looks of things, he died on impact. Bonnie pressed a hand to her mouth and another to her stomach as she felt her insides begin to churn.

Mary stood motionless for a moment, staring at Kol's lifeless body. A look of conflict briefly crossing her face. For a second, Bonnie thought she was going to cry. Instead, Mary pushed the gun back instead her coat and slowly backed away from the scene, breaking into a run after a couple of seconds. The last thing Bonnie heard before fading into the present was the screeching of tyres against the concrete.

"Bonnie?"

Bonnie blinked her eyes open adjusting to the light of her kitchen. As she registered Kol in front of her she realised there was a tear running down her cheek.

"What have you seen?" Kol asked, his voice low and grave. But by his tone, Bonnie could tell that he already had an idea.

"Who was Mary?" she asked, swiping at her cheek with the back of her hand.

"Mary?" Kol repeated. His brows knitted together in thought.

"Yay high, red hair, feisty attitude? That Mary?" he asked.

"That's the one," Bonnie nodded.

"She was my ex. A literally crazy and a bit of an Original groupie, I'm afraid. Mary was a close friend of my sister's; then she began seeing Klaus but that ended as quick as it began. After that, there was an Elijah period and then she found a new obsession: little old me. I usually didn't make a habit of taking up with my brother's leftovers but Mary, she was a blast. We always had fun whenever we're together."

"So what happened?"

"Well I wasn't exactly the steady type of boyfriend, as you can imagine and that rather upset her. I always made it clear that I wasn't in for anything serious but it went into one ear and straight out of the other. She saw us getting married in a church somewhere and having a bunch of kids. I saw myself passing out, after drinking my weight in larger, for the rest of the foreseeable future."

"So you ended things." Bonnie nodded, the pieces now forming together in her mind.

Kol squinted at her.

"Why are you asking me this? What exactly happened in that vision, love?"

Bonnie shut her eyes.

"She shot you," she whispered.

"Who?"

She swallowed.

"Who shot me, Bonnie?"

"Mary,"

A silence stretched between them. Bonnie pressed her eyes shut tighter to stop the tear that threatened to escape.

"I guess-" she sniffled. "I guess your break up really hurt her... She just took out a gun and- and then it was over. She didn't even say anything,"

When Kol still didn't reply Bonnie stretched out an arm to comfort him.

"I'm sorry Kol I-"

She reached out her hand grasped at nothing.

And when she opened her eyes, he was gone.


	7. The Sins of Last Night

"Sneaking out of bed so soon?"

Bonnie tensed at the sound of the self-satisfied, accented voice coming from behind her.

' _You're a grown up'_ she repeated to herself.

' _You don't have to be embarrassed about this. The walk of shame is a sexist concept constructed by patriarchal society to shame women who take control of their sexualities and-_

"-Usually I can't convince the ladies to leave,"

Bonnie willed herself not to release the tirade of choice words she had in mind and instead took a deep breath before turning to face the source of her irritation.

As anticipated, Kol was sprawled out on the bed, that his trademark smug smirk look plastered on his face; propped up in a position that Bonnie assumed was supposed to be sexy. Admittedly though, it was difficult trying not to let her eyes wander down to where only a small strip of the sheets covered his crotch. Especially considering the perfectly sculpted 'v shape' his pelvic bone was making.

At the sight of Kol, Bonnie was abruptly reminded of the poor thought processing that had led her to her current predicament.

The roguish smirk on Kol's face - when she, unfortunately, bumped into him, propped up against the bar in a tavern in the middle of New Orleans - combined with a few ill-advised tequila shots had been a recipe for disaster (as well hot illicit sex in the pub bathroom and various hard and flat surfaces in the hotel room).

The old Bonnie would have balked at the idea of going anywhere near an Original sibling (let alone Kol out of all of them) and engaging in a clandestine one night stand, just for the sake of scratching an itch. But the new Bonnie had a much larger appreciation of life and the concept of living it to the fullest and not resisting her basic urges as long as they weren't hurting anyone.

Kol was undeniably… skilled, but in the light of the new morning, the subsequent consequences of her actions were becoming abundantly clear.

"You need to get over yourself Kol," Bonnie bit out, grabbing a pair of jeans from off the ground and tossing them abruptly in his direction.

He caught it easily and laughed.

"Why do that when I could get _under_ you instead?"

Bonnie's nose wrinkled.

"Ugh, what the hell did I see in you? Beer goggles really are a powerful thing," she muttered.

"Now, now," Kol scolded sitting up in bed. Bonnie adamantly turned her back to him, as the sheet slipped further down his body and Kol made no attempt to stop it. "We both know I had your interest way before the drinks passed those lovely lips of yours,"

Kol reached out and traced his finger down her spine. Bonnie shuddered involuntarily but shout up quickly off of the bed, thankful that she'd managed to get her bra and panties on while Kol was talking.

"It was fun I guess, thanks-" Bonnie said dismissively, attempting to remain nonchalant, even though her skin was on fire as memories of the previous night flashed through her mind.

Kol remained uncharacteristically silent as Bonnie continued gathering the rest of her clothes and belongings; so much so that she briefly wondered if she'd actually offended him and bruised his ego.

Realizing that she was missing the small shoulder purse she came with she spun around, only to find Kol with it grasped in his left hand an almost childish look of glee on his features.

Bonnie sighed heavily and sent up a small prayer to the ancestors for patience (although on second thoughts she reasoned if her Grams could see her now she probably wouldn't want to).

"Kol I'm not going to play games with you this morning, a simple spell and I'll have you crossed eyed and thinking your hand is sock puppet named Gerald,"

"No need for threats darling," he replied calmly, extended the purse to her. "I simply thought I'd warn you,"

"Warn me?" Bonnie questioned, reaching out and grasping the bag from Kol's hands before he had the chance to move it away. "Warn me of what?"

"That you'll be back," Kol smirked obnoxiously. "They always come back eventually,"

Bonnie made a noise of disgust and took off out of the room as fast as her legs could carry her; ignoring Kol's laughter behind her.


	8. Ships in the night

"Well well well, if it isn't the tastiest little thing this side of the Americas,"

"Kol,"

Bonnie turned and smiled sweetly at the offender in question.

"Of course it would be you I ran into in the middle of the sleaziest bar in New Orleans,"

Kol's face contorted in mock offense and he pressed his hands to his chest.

"I'm offended Darling, this happens to be one of my favorite haunts,"

Rolling her eyes Bonnie laughed humorlessly.

"Why does that not surprise me? And seriously; 'The Americas'?! You really are old aren't you?"

"I'm going to ignore that remark in favor of telling you how stunning you look on this fine evening," Kol replied, his eyes darkening as he took a sip of the copper colored liquid in his glass.

"I don't need you to tell me I look good," Bonnie smirked. The liquor flowing through her system giving her an unexpected bout of confidence.

"All the same," he said lowly. "It's more than a pleasure to inform you,"

"I don't suppose I could tempt you to join me for a drink?"

Kol lifted his glass and shook it swirling the remaining contents inside.

"That depends," Bonnie responded before she could stop herself. "Are you paying?"

The wolfish smirk on Kol's lips grew as he reclined back against the bar.

"I'll compel you this entire bar if it means enjoying the pleasure of your company,"

Bonnie chewed on her lower lip thoughtfully and smoothed down the fabric of her dress.

"Don't read into this," she warned. "I may be a little older since you last saw me but I'm still me and you're still... you,"

Kol just kept the same easy going smile plastered on his face, his eyes sparkling with mirth as he watched her.

"This is just. Drinks." Bonnie emphasized.

"Whatever you say, darling,"


End file.
